Typically, multiphase fluid streams produced by individual wells of a well cluster are commingled and routed via a fluid separation assembly (a bulk separator or a production separator) into fluid outlet conduits for transportation of at least partly separated streams of liquids, gas and/or other fluids.
It is known from International patent applications WO 9101481 and WO 9960247 to connect a cluster of wells via a series of multiphase well effluent transportation pipelines commingled to a common bulk fluid separator and to monitor the size and/or composition of the stream of produced multiphase well effluents by means of flow meters that are connected to the fluid outlets of the bulk separator.
The most common well effluents are crude oil, natural gas and water which flow as a multiphase fluid mixture through the well production pipelines in sometimes erratic flow patterns which may quickly change from a stratified into a slug or mist flow pattern.
An advantage of the use of flow meters that are connected to the fluid outlets of the bulk separator is that these outlets contain generally single-phase fluids of which the flow rates can be measured accurately by dedicated liquid or gas flow meters. The flow rates of the commingled produced multiphase well effluents can be measured more accurately and economically using single phase flow meters than by making measurements with multiphase flow meters within the multiphase fluid transportation pipelines upstream of the separation assembly.
A problem associated with measuring fluid flow at the outlets of the bulk separator is that this fluid flow stems from the commingled flux from all the wells of the cluster and does not provide information about the composition and flux of fluids produced by the individual wells. Furthermore, the individual flux of fluids produced by the individual wells is currently not available in real time or instantaneously.